Reformation Day

Celebrating the Cause &
Cautioning the Celebrants
                                           Rev. Bill Hofer



This week Christians the world over observed with varying degrees of enthusiasm the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous “95 Theses” on the door of the Wittenberg Church. Unbeknownst to him he ignited a firestorm that has divided Christendom ever since.  That was not his intent.  He wanted to reform the Catholic Church from within.  The hierarchy, however, would have none of it. They pressured him to abandon what he believed was true.  He would not. We should not only remember his courage but celebrate his convictions.  Among them are these:
·   An emphasis on grace vs works for salvation
·   An emphasis on authority of Scripture above authority of the Church
·   A repudiation of the vile practice of selling indulgences to impoverished peasants who hoped to lessen their departed love one’s sufferings
·   A protest that eventually led to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers

While we celebrate Luther’s courage to stand for what he believed, a caution is necessary.  The Reformers made great strides in fighting the abuses of the 16th century church, but they failed to go far enough in their elevation of Scripture to its rightful place.  They recognized its authority.  They botched its interpretation.  More than half the Church still labors under a “spiritualized” Bible 500 years later. I have outlined 6 important differences between Reformed Theology and Dispensational Theology below:
   
         1. The method of interpretation.
Reformed Theology remains tied to the Augustinian and Catholic hermenuetic leading to an abandonment of a plain, literal understanding of Scripture.  They deny a literal 1,000-year kingdom on earth ruled by Jesus Christ thus ignoring or reinterpreting such passages as Isa. 2:1-5; 11:1-12; Jer. 23:5-8 and many more.  Most deny any glorious future for the nation of Israel thus ignoring such passages as Jer. 31:35-37.  Most have embraced preterism, the belief that prophecies of the Book of Revelation were fulfilled in 70 AD during the destruction of Jerusalem.
                  
        2. The motive of evangelism
The doctrine of election and God’s sovereignty is clearly taught in Scripture (Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13). Only God can open spiritual eyes and only God initiates a loving relationship with a saved sinner.  But a reliance on God electing some to salvation and some to damnation dampens evangelistic zeal and individual effort of the witness as he/she tries to present the gospel to a person as an object of God’s love.  For God wants “all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim. 2:4)

             3. The sequence of regeneration
As noted above, salvation is a supernatural work of God and no human effort can add to it anything of value.  God convicts and convinces the world of the sin of unbelief (Jn. 16:9-11) and of His righteousness and of coming judgment.  Reformed Theology teaches that because man is “spiritually dead” he cannot respond to the gospel message until God gives him the faith to believe by regenerating his heart. No less an authority than Charles Spurgeon recognized the folly of such an interpretation.    

        "If I am to preach faith in Christ to a man who is regenerated, then the 
         man, being regenerated, is saved already, and it is an unnecessary and 
         ridiculous thing for me to preach Christ to him, and bid him to believe
         in order to be saved when he is saved already, being regenerate.  Am I 
        only to preach faith to those who have it?  Absurd, indeed!  Is not this
        waiting till the man is cured and then bringing him the medicine? This
        is preaching Christ to the righteous and not to sinners."  
        The Warrant of Faith
                        
Adam immediately became spiritually dead when he sinned.  But he felt guilty and tried to hide from God, yet he heard God’s call, could still talk to God, and respond to God’s questions, all in a state of separation from God. Spiritually dead means separated from God. – not unable to respond in faith to the gospel.

           4.  The message of reconciliation
In Bible college, Dr. Jay Adams’ book, Competent to Counsel, was one of my textbooks.  He shared some wonderful truths but one statement always bothered me. “As a Reformed Christian the writer believes that counselors must not tell any unsaved counselee that Christ died for him, for they cannot say that.  No man knows except Christ himself who are his elect for whom he died.”  That always seemed to me to cut off the very best hope an unsaved person has… that Christ died for him and wants to save him and can most assuredly help him in his time of difficulty.  More importantly, it flies in the face of Scripture presenting open invitations to the lost and concrete statements to the truth that Christ died for the sins of the world, (Jn. 3:16; 6:52; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 2:2; 2 Peter 2:1).  

            5.  The basis for sanctification
Reformers emphasize God’s grace for salvation and for that we can all be grateful.  But they put the believer under the law for sanctification, and that we must resist.  The law is powerless to justify, as we all should agree, but it is just as powerless to sanctify.  We are to live by faith, not just be saved by faith, (Gal. 2:20; 6:14-16).  I grow in Christ likeness when I submit by faith to do His will in my body, (Eph. 5:18). No external list of do’s and don’ts will ever improve me spiritually.  Some Reformed teachers (and misinformed Dispensationalists, too) adhere to “Lordship Salvation.”  We must maintain a clear distinction between a requirement for salvation and a result of salvation.  My desire to serve my Savior as LORD is imparted by the indwelling Holy Spirit after salvation.  It is impossible for an unbeliever to make Jesus LORD before salvation.  Therefore, it cannot be a requirement for salvation nor an immediate evidence that regeneration has taken place.

           6.  The hope of eschatology
Without deliberately seeking it, Reformed Theology has downgraded the “Blessed Hope” of the Second Coming of Christ.  As stated in #1 above they do not anticipate an earthly kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem.  Worse, they do not countenance a sudden departure from earth in the rapture uniting the Church with her Bridegroom, Jesus.  They will have none of the talk of the translation of living believers, and resurrection of deceased believers, in a great “getting up morning” that will place us all in the presence of the LORD forever.  They lose a sense of urgency to warn the lost of the coming wrath of God and the sense of excitement that we can expect the trump of God any day now that will call us out of that wrath of God which is about to come, (John 14:1-6; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 3:10, 11).   

Let’s have the courage of our convictions too.  Certainly we can and should cooperate with Reformed brethren on many levels.  Like Luther, dividing the body of Christ is not my intent.  But we cannot compromise on a literal hermeneutic. To insist that Revelation passages were fulfilled in 70 AD in a “spiritual” coming of Christ has no basis in Scripture.  Neither can we offer a gospel limited by 16th century theologians to the elect and not for every man on earth. These issues are far from secondary.  They go to the very heart of the Christian message and impact preaching, evangelism, and missions. Like Luther, I must proclaim, “Here I stand.  May God help me.”

 First published Nov. 1, 2017

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